So maybe I’m a little biased. And maybe it was time to try something new.

The rise of the necromancer

As all you Diablo 3 fans may or may not know, the recent season ended with some news that made a lot of people very happy:

Blizzard decided to resurrect (yes I said that) the necromancer.

Now. I’m no expert on the subject by any stretch of the imagination, but from my understanding, the infamous priests of Rathma basically curb-stomped Diablo 2 and because they were too powerful to play in the sandbox with the others anymore, they escorted themselves right out of the third instalment, athankyouverymuch.

However, it seems that Blizzard decided to heed the pleas of its fans and bring back the popular character—in fuller force than ever.

‘Priest’ to meet you!

I was intrigued by the idea of the priests of Rathma; after all, my first taste of success in the game had left me with a rather insatiable thirst for more.

I was a little put off by the $20 price tag, though. For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian currency, that’s roughly the equivalent of three work weeks of Tim Hortons coffee, and that stuff is life.

Off to a strong start: my level-40ish necromancer, Persephone.

I had some very serious decision making to do, and since I do have to get up at ungodly hours most days (not a morning person), I made the tough decision to adult and get the coffee.

Imagine my surprise when one day, I got home from work–and the first thing I saw was Shane, happy as can be, sitting on the couch and playing his brand-new necromancer.
It was go time.

Test-driving the death machine

The first thing I noticed is just how much damage the necromancer can do right off the bat. Your starting attack creates a nice little patch of bone spikes that can pretty much one-shot anything you encounter in the first stages.

Oh right; “boss fight.”

– Shane’s thoughts on the necromancer’s power.

Shane has been playing Diablo games much longer than I have, so he had a strategy in mind; he was going to build up his little army and take on the world.

My path, on the other hand, was set the second I discovered I could make things explode.

Step 1: Bone Spear to take one monster out.Step 2: Corpse Explosion to create a bloody mess of a chain reaction.

An update already?

After the first night of playing, we were pretty sure that it wouldn’t be long before the necromancer got nerfed. After all, it’s not every character that has an ability that quite literally gives it an aura of death.

So when Blizzard had an announcement a week after the release, I wasn’t surprised—until I saw that it was that the necromancer was actually getting a buff.

After I thought about it, though, it kind of made sense; the necromancer is supposed to be legendarily strong, but I’m not entirely convinced it would do as much damage per hit as my demon hunter.

That’s not a fair comparison, since there isn’t a completely broken set for the necromancer yet. So maybe next season there’ll be one.